Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to a pick-and-place device, and more particularly to a disc pick-and-place device and an operating method thereof.
Description of the Related Art
The disc database, which uses discs as a data storage medium, normally includes multiple drives, a disc library for placing multiple discs, and a disc pick-and-place device. The disc pick-and-place device is for picking up and unloading discs, and moving discs between the disc library and the drives. For example, the disc pick-and-place device picks up a disc from the disc library and then moves and unloads the disc to the drive, or picks up a disc from the drive and then moves and unloads the disc to the disc library. To increase the disc handling efficiency, the disc pick-and-place device may clamp multiple discs and then move the multiple discs at one time. For example, the disc pick-and-place device picks up multiple discs from the disc library and then moves and unloads the multiple discs to their corresponding drives respectively. The disc pick-and-place device picks up discs from respective drives and then clamps the discs on the disc pick-and-place device. Then, the disc pick-and-place device unloads the clamped discs to the disc library.
Although the disc pick-and-place device may clamp multiple discs and then move the multiple discs at one time, normally one drive can only access one single disc. Therefore, how to provide a disc pick-and-place device capable of unloading each of the clamped discs to its corresponding drive has become a prominent task for people in the technology field of the invention.
Additionally, in order to determine the quantity of the discs clamped on the disc pick-and-place device, the disc pick-and-place device normally obtains a total height of the clamped discs according to the displacement of a probe, and then uses the total height of the clamped discs as a basis for determining the disc quantity of the clamped discs. According to the above determination method, a probe structure is disposed on one side of the disc pick-and-place device, such that the probe can lean on a surface of the clamped discs. However, the probe directly contacts the disc surface, and therefore may easily scratch or damage the disc.